Dec 13 Artist Spotlight: Jake Flint

Jake Flint was born in Oklahoma in the year nineteen hundred and eighty-five. If you are familiar with Jake and his songwriting, then you would think that he is a much older soul than his age allows. He grew up in the rural and small oilfield boom town of Holdenville, in Southeastern Oklahoma. Jake’s dad was a music lover and Jake benefited by being brought up on the music of such artists as John Denver, James Taylor, Townes Van Zandt, John Prine and others. The Flint family moved from Holdenville to Tulsa when Jake was a kid. He recalls himself being the “outcast country kid in the city.” Although Jake did not feel like he belonged in the city, he continued to benefit from the change as he grew from a broadened range of musical influences stemming from his older sister’s taste in music. Jake was exposed to 90s grunge bands from Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Foo Fighters or whatever else he heard blaring from his sister’s room. These influences would expand even further, and Jake would learn and love music for an even more personal reason.

Music was not something that Jake learned to do on just a whim or as a new hobby. For Jake, the guitar found his hand for another reason. His father was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) or Lou Gehrig’s Disease in 1994 when Jake was just nine years old. In fear that he could not provide interaction to his son or participate with Jake in sports, he commissioned a couple of his lifelong best friends to teach Jake to play guitar and expose him to regional bluegrass festivals. The love of these festivals would lead Jake on a spiral into other types of sounds and transitioned into a love for jam bands such as Phish and the String Cheese Incident. This is the timeframe that Jake became inspired to write his own music.

Jake Flint entered into his twenties with the discovery of the Texas and Oklahoma Red Dirt scenes. Flint began listening to singer/songwriters such as Tom Skinner, Bob Childers, Jason Boland, Cody Canada, and Mike McClure, who later went on to produce Flint’s first record. This genre and type of music is where Flint began to fit in. It allowed him to find his musical inspiration and is at the point of his life where his music career was launched at the age of twenty-nine. Whether Jake knew it or not, he would be writing, performing live shows, and recording songs that appear on music charts in no time at all.

In 2016, Flint wrote and recorded his first full length album, “I’m Not Ok” in the Boohatch Studio, in Ada, Oklahoma. The album was produced by Oklahoma Red Dirt legend and friend of Flint’s, Mike McClure. Flint and McClure intended for the production to be similar with the musical stylings as the Great Divide and Cross Canadian Ragweed sounds that McClure had produced in the past. The duo hit a home run with the help of Taylor Reed, Jon Knudson from Whiskey Myers, and Jake’s good friend Cody Woody. The single “Cowtown” would later be release in 2018 and would receive considerable air play and chart recognition in Texas. Flint would also impress with his performance at the Texas Regional Radio Music Awards.

On December 1, 2018 the album Live and Not Ok at Cain’s Ballroom was released on all digital platforms. The album is also available to order on CD and features a magnificent layout by Oklahoma musician Kalyn Fay Barnoski and photography from the live show by Melissa Payne Photography. The album was recorded live on location by Jeremy Grodhaus at the Historic Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa, OK on August 17th, 2018. The album is produced by Jake Flint and mixed and mastered by Joe Hardy. The recordwas released in both a non-explicit and explicit version. Live and Not Ok at Cain’s Ballroom consists of a ten track, twelve song, set from Jake Flint and the band. Seven of the tunes are original writes or co/writes by Flint. Five of the tunes from the Cain’s Ballroom are amazing covers that includes one of the best live versions of the 1979 Hank Williams Jr classic, “Whiskey Bent and Hell Bound.” The set included a six-minute rendition of his 2017 debut single on Texas Red Dirt Radio “Cowtown.” This must hear live version was written by Flint and co-produced by renowned Oklahoma artist/producer, Mike McClure. Flint and the boys also hit a home run on this set with his up-tempo tune, “Long Road Back Home”, also co-produced by McClure for the single release earlier in 2018. You will be able to feel the energy of this live production from the very first second that Flint speaks into the microphone until the very last chord. Jake is primed and ready to put himself into a position to be a successful headlining act in the very near future! Go have a listen to this record on your favorite digital platform or visit jakeflintmusic.com and grab the hard copy CD. Go get it.